AFTER reading the online comments to my Sunday column about the public schools, Pasadena Unified board member Renatta Cooper responded with concern.

A number of posters said that while they were happy enough with some aspects of the schools in Altadena, Pasadena and Sierra Madre – the teachers, the curriculum, the campuses – they were appalled by the lack of discipline, which made it hard for other students to learn.

“The biggest stumbling block seems to be getting a grip on discipline and follow through. NO ONE wants to send their child to a school where they can’t feel safe. So why can’t the district seem to improve discipline?” writes “Looking for Change.”

“Even the Marshalls and Don Benitos of the district have students with serious behavior issues, who disrupt even the much touted classes at those schools. The district will not allow those principals to rescind a disruptive student’s enrollment permit at those schools, thus keeping the education level at even our `good’ schools pretty middlin’,” writes “Sheesh.”

Rather than getting defensive, Renatta, a lifelong educator and former Pacific Oaks dean, cuts to the chase: “I was reading the comments to your story and I found them quite disturbing. I have been a board member for three years. I would welcome any parent with an example of a discipline matter being ignored during this time to please send me an e-mail at rcooper@pusd.us on the specifics of the incident so that I may investigate.”

Parents, students, teachers, even – take her up on it. Otherwise, we’re letting the thugs win.

Headline on a Monday front-page New York Times story: “In Colorado, It’s Now Legal to Catch a Raindrop.” It turns out that “Precipitation, every last drop or flake, was assigned ownership from the moment it fell in many Western states,” but laws have been changed in Colorado at least to allow residents to collect rainwater legally.

The question has been: “Who owns the sky?” I asked Pasadena PIO Ann Erdman whether cistern-wielders in this city risked the hoosegow. Her reply: “It’s neither legal nor illegal here. There’s nothing currently in the Pasadena Municipal Code about it. A couple of departments are looking at creating some legal protocols for the sake of public health and safety.” Being on the, so to speak, glass-half-full side of the bureaucratic divide, I say that if something’s not illegal, then it’s legal. And Ann pointed me to a recent story she wrote in the city’s newsletter, Pasadena In Focus, about Northwest Commission Chair Dan Sharp and his wife Maya installing a barrel beneath their solar panels – talk about a green household! – to capture the runoff when they wash them. Cost just $45 in materials and a couple of hours of time. “A typical roof gutter can siphon off about 200 gallons from a mere quarter inch of rainfall. The Sharps now connect a hose to the rain barrel to irrigate their vegetable garden and deep water their fruit trees,” Ann writes.

Larry Wilson is public editor of the San Gabriel Valley Newspapers and a columnist and member of the editorial board for the Southern California News Group. He was hired as editorial page editor of the Pasadena Star-News in 1987, and then for 12 years was that paper's editor. He now writes editorials for SCNG, a local column in the Star-News on Wednesdays and a regional column for the group on Sundays.